Summary

Short summary describing this arc.

Kyle Rayner crash lands on earth where two hikers find him along with a green structure like coffin. As events begin to unravel, Hal Jordan as the Spectre is unable to focus clearly and tells his friend Green Arrow that something is wrong. Elsewhere two pilots encounter the resurrection of Coast City which was once destroyed by the Cyborg Superman and Mongul, and to add to the mystery the only building standing is Hal Jordan’s old home.

Elsewhere again, Kyle Rayner's power ring begins to warn that "Parallax is coming". Spectre (Hal Jordan) who is at Ferris Air Field reminiscing with his former lover Carol Ferris, is confronted by Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Zatanna, The Flash, and John Stewart on the sudden recreation of Coast City but Jordan denies any involvement. At that time, John Stewart suddenly loses control and attacks the other heroes while his rings warns that "Parallax is coming". Meanwhile, back at the Watchtower on the Moon, the emergency power ring that Hal Jordan once gave Green Arrow duplicates itself and places itself on Guy Gardner’s finger and once again restores him as a Green Lantern.

At Highway Hill, the Green Lantern Kilowog arrives and suddenly attacks Kyle Rayner but the sudden appearance of Ganthet, one of the Guardians of the Universe, is able to stop Kilowog and protect the coffin, which it is revealed holds the corpse of Hal Jordan. Kyle feels something inside his ring that is attempting to control him while Ganthet engages in battle with Kilowog. In order to protect Kyle, Ganthet teleports Rayner and Jordan’s corpse to the Justice League Watchtower on the Moon. Meanwhile, Jordan returns to the newly reconstructed Coast City to investigate the appearance of his old apartment building. As he holds up his Lantern power battery he sees the reflection of his Parallax version. The Parallax version of himself confronts him saying that together they had brought Coast City back. Parallax then engages in a battle of wills with the Spirit of Vengeance bonded to Jordan’s soul.

The Spirit of Parallax confronts Hal Jordan

The Spirit then explains to Jordan the truth about Parallax, while at the same time on the Moon, Rayner does so to Green Arrow. Kyle had journeyed to the edge of the universe, and on the tenth planet from the star Pagallus, the inhabitants revealed that Parallax was a yellow demonic parasitic entity that was born at the beginning of sentience and fed on fear therefore creating terror in anything it came into contact with which caused entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia and fear of each other. The Guardians of the Universe then imprisoned the creature within the Central Power Battery on Oa. There Parallax laid dormant for billions of years, and his true nature was kept a secret by the Guardians to avoid anyone from trying to free it, and thus, it had eventually come to be referred to as simply “the yellow impurity”. Parallax weakened its power over the corresponding spectrum, therefore explaining the Green Lanterns' weakness against yellow.

However, Parallax was soon awakened and reached out to Jordan through Jordan's own ring when Jordan was at his weakest and spent years subtly influencing him. After the destruction of Coast City, Parallax was able to gain full control over the grief stricken Jordan and was completely freed. When Jordan destroyed the Central Power Battery it grafted itself onto Jordan’s soul. When Hal had become the Spectre, the Spirit of Vengeance drew in Jordan's soul, as it explains to Jordan, in order to eradicate the parasitic Parallax from it. All of a sudden Green Arrow and Rayner are then attacked by Sinestro, who explains that it was he who used his yellow power ring to tap into Parallax’s power and awakened it, and that the Sinestro that was killed was an illusionary construct of Parallax, so that his murder would serve as the final stage of Jordan's transformation into the impurity in order to break his will.

The Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, and the Teen Titans arrive in Coast City and engage in a battle with Parallax but are defeated. The Spirit of Vengeance, however, manages to overpower Parallax, and removes the parasite from Jordan’s soul. Parallax then transfers itself onto Ganthet.

Back at the watchtower, Green Arrow and Kyle Rayner fight Sinestro but are unable to win. At this point Hal Jordan's fingers in the coffin begin to move and his white hair disappears. His thoughts clear for the first time in a long time, and Hal emerges from the coffin. Resurrected as a mortal human again, he tells Sinestro to back away from Kyle and Green Arrow. Sinestro and Hal fight each other and eventually Hal is victorious and forces the renegade back into the antimatter universe. Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kilowog return to Coast City and release Ganthet from the possession of Parallax. They then once again imprison the parasitic entity in the central power battery on Oa.